Here’s President Obama’s newest strategy for re-election: Blame the sagging economy on the American public itself.

Good luck with that one, Mr. President.

“The way I think about it is, you know, this is a great, great country that had gotten a little soft — and, you know, we didn’t have that same competitive edge that we needed over the last couple of decades. We need to get back on track,” he said in an interview this week.

Hey, it’s progress, anyway: At least it’s no longer George W. Bush being held responsible for all Obama’s failures.

Then again, it’s not exactly clear how Americans will enjoy being thrown under the bus by Obama for having been out of work so long and for the nation’s chronically weak growth rates.

But a similar tack by Jimmy Carter in July 1979 — when he made his famous “malaise” speech — might offer insights.

Back then, Carter harangued Americans for a “crisis of confidence that strikes at the very heart and soul and spirit of our national will. We can see this crisis … in the loss of a unity of purpose for our nation.”

Carter never actually uttered the word “malaise.” But the term stuck nonetheless, because — as with Obama’s characterization — it revealed Carter’s view of the nation’s ailing condition, and just who he thought should get the blame for it.

Then, too, the economy was sputtering and joblessness was rampant. And the man in the White House was utterly clueless as to how to fix things.

No doubt, that contributed materially to Carter’s fate as a one-term president.

Now, Obama seeks to toughen-up “soft” Americans with (get this!) more government handouts — such as grants to states to prop up their bloated public-sector payrolls.

And he hopes to pay for runaway federal spending with yet more taxes on the “rich” — that is, the most productive parts of the economy, folks in the private sector.

Americans are soft?

What about goverment?

Give Obama some credit, though.

So far, at least, he’s steered clear of that infernal red cardigan Carter wore during his notorious America-in-decline moment.